Analysis of The doll's wooing

Eugene Field 1850 (St. Louis) – 1895 (Chicago)



The little French doll was a dear little doll
Tricked out in the sweetest of dresses;
Her eyes were of hue
A most delicate blue
And dark as the night were her tresses;
Her dear little mouth was fluted and red,
And this little French doll was so very well bred
That whenever accosted her little mouth said
"Mamma! mamma!"

The stockinet doll, with one arm and one leg,
Had once been a handsome young fellow;
But now he appeared
Rather frowzy and bleared
In his torn regimentals of yellow;
Yet his heart gave a curious thump as he lay
In the little toy cart near the window one day
And heard the sweet voice of that French dolly say:
"Mamma! mamma!"

He listened so long and he listened so hard
That anon he grew ever so tender,
For it's everywhere known
That the feminine tone
Gets away with all masculine gender!
He up and he wooed her with soldierly zest
But all she'd reply to the love he professed
Were these plaintive words (which perhaps you have guessed):
"Mamma! mamma!"

Her mother - a sweet little lady of five -
Vouchsafed her parental protection,
And although stockinet
Wasn't blue-blooded, yet
She really could make no objection!
So soldier and dolly were wedded one day,
And a moment ago, as I journeyed that way,
I'm sure that I heard a wee baby voice say:
"Mamma! mamma!"


Scheme xxaaxbbbC xdxbdeeeC xfggfhhhC xibxieeeC
Poetic Form
Metre 01011101101 110010110 01011 011001 011010010 011011101 011011111011 101001001011 1010 011111011 111010110 11101 10101 0111110 111101001111 001011101011 01011111101 1010 11011011011 111110110 11101 101001 1011110010 110110111 11101101101 01101101111 1010 01001101011 10010010 011 101101 110111010 11001001011 001001111011 11111011011 1010
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,256
Words 242
Sentences 11
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 9, 9, 9, 9
Lines Amount 36
Letters per line (avg) 28
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 251
Words per stanza (avg) 59
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:12 min read
89

Eugene Field

Eugene Field, Sr. was an American writer, best known for his children's poetry and humorous essays. more…

All Eugene Field poems | Eugene Field Books

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